Bridgeporter sentenced to 12 and-a-half years for crack sales

Updated 4:53 pm, Saturday, August 20, 2011

A Bridgeport man caught up in a six-month undercover U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration investigation dubbed Operation Big Loot will be spending the next 12 and-one-half years behind bars.

Chief U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson imposed the federal prison term on Andre Spaulding, 28, of Kossuth Street, during proceedings Friday at the Hartford courthouse.

Spaulding, who is already serving a two-year state prison term on unrelated charges, pleaded guilty March 11, 2010, to conspiring to distribute crack in Bridgeport.

As a result of the investigation, federal agents and area police arrested 52 people mostly in the Stamford area, seized $165,000, five guns, 2.2 pounds of cocaine and 4.4 pounds of crack.

In addition to the DEA, agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, State Police, the U.S. Marshal's Service and police from Bridgeport, Stratford, Norwalk and Stamford participated in the investigation.